State-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空) yesterday said the Taiwan Stock Exchange is reviewing the company’s initial public offering (IPO) proposal as it plans to go public in September.
“Basically, AIDC aims to go public next quarter at the earliest by selling more than half of its shares to individual or enterprise investors,” spokesperson Lin Nan-chu (林南助) said by telephone.
The exchange’s Corporation Securities Listing Review Committee yesterday finished its evaluation of AIDC’s financial condition and concluded that the company is qualified to be listed on the main bourse, he said.
However, AIDC has not finalized its offering price and how many shares are to be sold.
STATE STAKE
More than 99 percent of AIDC’s shares are now owned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, with the rest held by the National Defense Industry Development Fund, which is managed by the Ministry of National Defense.
Founded in July, 1997, AIDC has capital of NT$9.08 billion (US$301.26 million) and about 3,000 employees. The company produces aircraft engine components — mostly for civilian aircraft, but also for the nation’s military, Lin said.
CLIENTS
The US’ Boeing Co and France’s Airbus Group NV are both AIDC’s customers, in addition to Canadian plane and train maker Bombardier Aerospace, the UK auto brand Rolls-Royce and Japan’s Mitsubishi Aircraft, he added.
“We expect the IPO launch to help AIDC generate more funds for future investments in product research and development, which is crucial to the company’s long-term competitiveness in the global market,” Lin said.
POST-2001
When the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US occurred, AIDC faced a steep fall in demand and posted losses of up to NT$6.5 billion for that year, Lin said.
However, after years of product quality improvements and establishing supply chains, AIDC turned profitable in 2007. The company saw its sales climb to a record high of NT$23.08 billion last year, up 2.12 percent from NT$22.6 billion in 2012, company data showed.
Net profits also hit a record high of NT$1.35 billion last year, from NT$853.47 million the previous year, with earnings per share of NT$1.42, data showed.
CROSS-STRAIT FOCUS
Lin said AIDC has targeted China as its main market over the next decade, because demand for aircraft is taking off amid the rise of the Chinese economy.
As a result of hikes in oil prices, demand for composite components is also expected to surge in the near future as aircraft manufacturers are all looking for components that can help them reduce weight and fuel costs, which will help boost AIDC’s orders, Lin said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS